Journal Quality: Checklist

Number

For journal articles, how many articles has the journal published? How many citations are there to those articles? For books, how many other books has that publisher produced?

• Has already published high quality articles
• Articles in this journal have been cited elsewhere

• No articles or books published
• Articles and books have not been cited elsewhere

Is the fee reasonable?

• Fees fall in the industry standard $1500 - $5000 range

• Fees too low (e.g., $300) or too high
• The publisher appears to be trying to raise revenues by soliciting / spamming authors

What company owns and produces this journal or book? Can you tell who owns the company?

• Smaller imprint of a bigger publisher
• Owned by a society or recognized institution

• Information not available at all
• Address and contact information seems unlikely for a publishing company

Are articles and chapters peer reviewed before acceptance? How robust is the review process?

• Peer review process is described in detail and is standard for the discipline

• Information not available at all
• Fast review turnaround promised (e.g., 3 days or a week)
• No review process; all articles accepted
• No acceptance rate listed

What associations or OA alliances does the journal or publisher have?

• Associations listed, such as ICMJE, COPE, OASPA
• Indexing sites listed. Note: indexing in MEDLINE can take a couple of years for new journals.
• Preservation / archiving policies listed

• Acronyms may be listed on the website, but the publisher could not actually be a member
• Publisher recommends standards, but does not require them

Who is on their editorial board and staff?

• Experts in the field with institutional affiliations

• Editorial board may have expertise, but it is in areas outside the scope of the journal
• No information listed about editors or staff
• No information listed under about us
• Open calls for editorial boards and reviewers